Submissions Open - Trick or Treat: Tricks & Treats Volume 3

Submissions Accepted Until June 1, 2015

Trick or Treat Volume 3: Pranks, Parties, and Pumpkins

Welcome to another call for the third installment of the Trick or Treat series.

This year, we’re looking do a celebration of, well, modern celebrations. As the previous year, we did a brief tour through Halloweens of the past, this year we want tales that specifically focus on and draw inspiration from all the trappings and motifs of people celebrating contemporary Halloween of the last couple decades. Give me tales of pranks gone wrong (or very right). The supernatural mingling with modern technology and observances of Halloween. A nice current take on a tale of trick-or-treating terror. Scares or sensuality at a costumed bash. Or of course, new terrors that mingle with time-honored traditions that still live like jack-o’-lanterns and local haunted houses. Plumb all the possible depths of current Halloween celebrations.

Basic Guidelines:

10,000 words max. (query for longer stories before submitting with a basic synopsis and why you need those extra words)

Word .doc or .rtf file, Times New Roman, 1” margins all around. No need to worry about double-spacing. Use Italics for Italics.

When submitting, include preferred contact info on first page as well as author name and title

Number pages and include author name and abbreviated title in header of each page

No simultaneous submissions or copyrighted characters that aren’t yours.

Only looking for furry stories at this time. Mixed universes (human and furry) are okay.

Original stories only please, nothing that’s been in other anthologies or up on FA or SoFurry

Email all submissions to ianus.anthologies@gmail.com Include “Trick or Treat 3 Submission” in your subject and whether the story is for Tricks or Treats

Yes, you can submit a story for each section or multiple submissions, but in most cases only your top story is going to go in.

What I want for Tricks:

Scare me – That’s the first thing; if you can actually really scare me, you have a much better shot. And not just a surprise scare, write something that might make me hesitate to turn off the light that night.

Run wild – There aren’t any limits, this is going to be an anthology for adults still, so violence and/or some gore are just fine. However, don’t send me 5,000 words of nothing but gratuitous gore and violence, have a story to back it up.

Balance classic with innovation – Since in the first Trick or Treat I got a wonderful mix of completely different types of scares, I'm more open to things like vampires, zombies, ghosts, etc. in current editions. Especially if used in different ways. Of course, that shouldn't stop you from giving me a completely different kind of scare this year as well.

Limit Sex – Characters in sexual situations can certainly happen in Tricks, but it needs to be justified by the story being told. For Tricks, it shouldn’t be the primary focus that it would be for Treats

Use the tropes – Halloween has a lot of tropes and traditions that can easily give you some great material. Use those traditions and the actual history of Halloween, especially when picking a time for your story. This is especially important this year as we work to find all the spookiest facets of modern celebrations of Halloween.

Halloween is not about Satan – While the use of devils and demons for your horror story is fine, you won’t get any mileage out of a religious screed about someone defeating the “evil” of the holiday itself.

What I want for Treats:

Sex – Let’s not mince words, Treats should be on the steamy side with a Halloween or transitional autumn theme. Give me something that will turn the reader on.

Eroticism – Go beyond just having your characters rut for ten pages. Give me a reason for them to have fun and why it relates to Halloween of that year.

Limit use of simple costume parties – For this edition, there will be a temptation to just have two people meet at a standard costume party. And while that can be fun and I’ll probably have at least one story in that vein, there are so many potential ways to use modern celebrations and tell a nice, sexy All Hallows’ Eve story. Use your imagination, give me something really interesting. If you are going to use a costume party, make an amazing story out of it.

Any and all orientations – Treats is always meant to be equal opportunity. Give me gay, lesbian, straight, bi, whatever. Anything that fits the mood of the anthology.

More than just October 31st – Don’t take a random adult story and just change all the calendars to Halloween. Give me something that at least relates to the time of year where I can't easily find/replace with President’s Day or Valentine's Day. The theme is Halloween.

Supernatural allowed – You’re free to use actual supernatural themes in your erotica if that’s what you want, and it does fit the theme. Really clever use of the supernatural and Halloween mythos will help you out. This is not about erotic horror though, so keep that in mind.

NO UNDERAGE CHARACTERS – At least not in any sexual situations. If they have to be in the story somewhere for storytelling sake, that’s fine, but they need to be out of the room and tucked in bed upstairs before the real action starts.

For questions about any of the criteria above, send email to ianus.anthologies@gmail.com with the subject heading “Trick or Treat 3 Question”

Compensation:

Stories – Rabbit Valley® Comics will pay out a flat rate of $100.00 per accepted story for the print production of the anthology. We do not pay out on word count as we feel that authors should be free to express their story in as many words as necessary, within the limits of the anthology in question.

Artwork – Rabbit Valley Comics is not actively seeking artwork for submissions at this time.